My apologies, I had started a reply about this, then lost it when my computer updated and restarted, and forgot to get back to it.
This is a good decision, but doesn't change how the copyright law applies
to us. The judge in this case merely ruled that
Righthaven had no ownership of the copyright, and therefore no right to sue for infringement; however,
those copyrights are still held by someone else and they retain the right to sue.
From
that article
:
Before Friday’s ruling by Jones, five other judges in Nevada and Colorado ruled Righthaven lacked standing to sue because, despite its claims it owned the copyrights it was suing over, the newspapers actually maintained control over the content Righthaven was suing over.
Copyright infringement lawsuit plaintiffs must control the material they are suing over and must own more than the bare right to sue, the judges ruled
.
On top of those dismissals, three judges ruled defendants were protected by the fair use doctrine of copyright law in posting material from the Review-Journal without authorization.
Everyone has the right to re-post an article as long as they link to the source and quote no more than a
bare minimum to get the gist of the article across (and they aren't going to profit from it). Some sites are more strict than others; for example, AP wants a link, headline, and nothing more. Denver Post says no photos can be copied. The rules are vague, and each source will have different guidelines/rules, but the main point to keep in mind is that
it should not contain so much that a reader does not have to click on the link to read the story and get the rest of the information. It should be a teaser, just enough information to convey the intent of the article (you may post a summary in your own words that has no length limit). Some organizations limit this to one paragraph, some say 1/6-1/5th of the entire length.
You must use your best judgement. If you're not sure, check your source's Terms of Use for details.
We are required to help posters stay within copyright law, and if contacted by a copyright owner for infringement, to pull the entire content if requested.
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/intell ... r_use.html
The less commercial the use, the smaller the portion used, the lesser the import of that portion of the work to the whole, and the lesser the effect on the market for or value of the work, the more likely it will be that fair use doctrine will apply.
A good rule of thumb for "fair use" is that you should avoid using more of a copyrighted work than is absolutely necessary to make your desired point. Exceeding the minimum makes it more difficult to argue that your use was in fact fair use. Similarly, as suggested by the examples above, do not reproduce only the most valuable portion or portions of a copyrighted work.
Please note that for any use of somebody else's copyrighted work, you should provide proper attribution of the work by presenting the copyright notice from the original work, and provide appropriate citations to the original source.
The Bloggers' FAQ on Intellectual Property
by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
What is fair use? There are no hard and fast rules for fair use (and anyone who tells you that a set number of words or percentage of a work is "fair" is talking about guidelines, not the law). The Copyright Act sets out four factors for courts to look at (17 U.S.C. § 107):
● The purpose and character of the use.
● The nature of the copyrighted work.
● The amount and substantiality of the portion used. Copying nearly all of a work, or copying its "heart" is less likely to be fair.
● The effect on the market or potential market.
May I freely copy from federal government documents?
When can I borrow someone's images for my blog post?
More general FAQs about copyright
see link for detailed answers to these and other questions
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2005/10/ ... -fair-use/
Copyright Infringement, Plagiarism and Fair Use
Written on: October 6, 2005
People, who often aren’t aware of the subtle nuances that separate the terms, use them in incorrect ways and cause confusion, often turning a legitimate complaint into a questionable matter. So, given what’s at stake, it’s worth taking a moment to talk about these terms, what they entail and how to use them correctly.
● Copyright Infringement is defined as “the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.”
● Plagiarism is defined as “the use of another’s information, language, or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source.”
● Fair use is a legal gray area that refers to exceptions in the rights of copyright holders and allows for limited use of copyrighted material, even without permission. In short, using short, attributed snippets of a piece for the purpose of commentary or education is generally considered fair use.
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/03/ ... -fair-use/
Excerpts, Scraping and Fair Use
Written on: March 3, 2009
As the New York Times article discussed, fair use guidelines in the U.S. are far too ambiguous to be of much use in this area. There are no “hard line” rules with fair use and everything is decided on a case-by-case basis.
While that maximized the flexibility in the law, it also causes headaches when trying to set up simple rules. To me, proper excerpting is not about bright lines, but about symbiosis, making sure that the creators of the original work gain from your use as much as possible.
The reason excerpting doesn’t work as well as we would like is because visitors routinely don’t follow through to the source. Even the best use of an excerpt will only pass along a small percentage of visitors to the original story. As surfers, we are all guilty of that, we’ve all read a post with an excerpt and moving on without checking out the source.
Though bright line rules can provide some guidance, the only solution that is going to work is respect. Whenever we do any of these things, we have to show respect to the others involved. In the end, we all have to work together. Good neighbors on the Web consider these issues and, though they might reach conflicting conclusions, at least try to offer support back to creators.
http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
Terms of Use
The Denver Post has always taken copyright issues very seriously, both as a creator of content and as a user of other people's content. In fact, everything that appears in a typical edition of the newspaper is copyright protected.
Nonetheless, our work is illegally reproduced everyday on websites across the country. The federal Copyright Act protects our right and our readers' rights to make fair use of copyrighted content. We have no issue with people who quote a small amount of a Post story so as to comment on it, perhaps even criticize us.
But fair use of our content restricts those who want to reference it to reproduce no more than a headline and up to a couple of paragraphs or a summary of the story. (We also request users provide a link to the entire work on our website). The fair use rule generally does not entitle users to display the whole story or photograph on their website. To do so is a violation of our copyright and we will use all legal remedies available to address these infringements.
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_a ... index.html
CHAPTER 9. Fair Use
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. Unfortunately, if the copyright owner disagrees with your fair use interpretation, the dispute may have to be resolved by a lawsuit or arbitration. If it’s not a fair use, then you are infringing upon the rights of the copyright owner and may be liable for damages.
The only guidance for fair use is provided by a set of factors outlined in copyright law. These factors are weighed in each case to determine whether a use qualifies as a fair use. Unfortunately, weighing the fair use factors is often quite subjective. This chapter explains the various rules behind fair use principles.
